From what is repeated without facts by the RWNJs, you would never know President Obama’s hometown has had the fewest murders since 1965. Based on population, Chicago doesn’t even qualify for the top 10 cities on murder rate. Just another false GOP talking point to smear the President.

I’m pretty bummed about this Newtown anniversary as I feel like this is a hopeless cause; to inject sanity into our gun laws. I hear POTUS talking about the real possibility of immigration reform but feel like he thinks that the NRA still has a stranglehold over the GOP and the handful of Dems in Congress. Anyone think something might change this next year?

The NRA surely has LOTS of money …but the REAL CULPRIT, in my estimation and humble opinion, is ALEC. At the state level, the legislators that are bought and paid for and push these model bills through, favorable to gun manufacturers and marketed on fear to citizens, need to be exposed and those “lawmakers” defeated at the state level. Once the housecleaning has taken place at the state level, I believe that it will be much easier to take on the big $ NRA at the federal level.

I so respect the President and First Lady for honoring Sandy Hook families’ requests to keep this horrible “anniversary” private. It is for the town alone, and we who grieve for and with them need to do what the First Family did, and leave them to be within the hearts and love of their community.

I am thinking Sandy Hook’s families are correct in setting guidelines for this remembrance. In more recent years the press has forsaken manners and respect for victims of tragedies and their families. I hate seeing mice stuck in people’s faces with inappropriate questions like how do you feel? I do realize the importance of parents and family members being in the press in locating missing and possibly kidnapped people. I just wish there was some semblance with the press for appropriateness these days.

I’m glad I came upon the blog today in time to start with this “remembering” post. Not only to take a moment to remember, but to see the perfect, simple tribute of the candles’ being lit by our President and First Lady. And to realize again that even with all the “silliness” in our own lives, all of our so-called cares and woes, we have so much to be thankful for at this time of year …

… and that “there but for the grace of God” could go every one of our families, when we remember those impacted by these tragedies.

Remembering … and thankful … and wishing good afternoon to all of TOD on this snowy Saturday.

I do, and I will continue to think something will change. We are the people. We can work just as hard when we come together and put out our hands and clasped them together and make the handful of Dems and GOPers in Congress left with no hold on our children and citizens across this nation.

This is not a time of distancing and doubting the power of the people, but a time to put into our space hard, workable solutions in the form of the actions of millions of people who elected and re-elected a president who many thought money would win over the goodness and hardwork of the people. Yes, We Can Change Next Year. Together We Can. We Need to Stay Focus.HZ

Right on, HZ. The NRA and the right wing are hoping we give up and just accept the current situation as inevitable. But we won’t give up and I haven’t seen Gabby Gifford or Mark Kelly give up either. This issue is still very dear to our president’s heart and I intend to keep fight for it.

Gun violence is a disease that is tearing the fabric of this nation apart. I can’t imagine the horror and pain so many families in this country are living with day after day just so some can exercise the right to take a weapon of destruction and shatter lives.

Yet I still have hope that the will of the people will prevail because without that kernel of hope; that will to fight, that strength and courage that we see in the families who get up and push for change everyday, then we will be lost and I refuse to give in to that yawning black hole.

>>>> Sees the Deep Currents (what is trying to emerge) and experiences, but is not distracted by the Surface Storms (the often chaotic, what-is-happening-right-now, who’s up-who’s down level of action).
>>>> Leads from Behind most of the time. Sets the vision and a few key organizational goals or “attractors” that invite both high-performing teams and entire complex systems to self-organize in support of causing the vision to emerge.
>>>> Listens deeply, to what people and events are wanting to say.
>>>> Knows how to put aside his/her personal lenses in order to look clearly at what is arising.

Today I want to add one more quality of the integral leader – the ability to plant “seeds of possibility” and the patience to wait for what may emerge.

That’s what Obama did in Cairo, in January 2009: he planted “seeds of possibility” that are beginning to grow and bear fruit. Let me give some highlights, which will include other “seed planting” fruit growing; in other words, Obama planted seeds in many places, not only in Cairo:
……………………………………//

Today as President and Michelle Obama paid homage to the victims who were killed in Newtown a year ago today, I’m thinking of the stories he holds in his heart. Here’s Joshua DuBois’ recounting of the President’s time with families prior to the memorial service last year.

“Person after person received an engulfing hug from our commander in chief. He’d say, “Tell me about your son… . Tell me about your daughter,” and then hold pictures of the lost beloved as their parents described favorite foods, television shows, and the sound of their laughter. For the younger siblings of those who had passed away—many of them two, three, or four years old, too young to understand it all—the president would grab them and toss them, laughing, up into the air, and then hand them a box of White House M&M’s, which were always kept close at hand. In each room, I saw his eyes water, but he did not break.
…………..”

My hope is for support and healing to all the hearts that are broken today. = SmartyPants

I like Frank Schaefer but using lethal language about POTUS to describe the political tactics of the racists and haters is provides incitement, imho. In the same way I find joking “Impeach!” tweets (about POTUS when good things happen in his administration) to not be funny. Those people are so unhinged that even framing the discussion in those terms is giving them credit on some level for their rhetoric.

My opinion, if I may offer it … I’m white and in my 60s, like Frank, and I think this should be read by everyone in White America who doesn’t think their everyday thoughts and actions affect anyone else. They don’t get the context, and they don’t know they’re part of the problem. And there are a whole lot of them. Frank knows this, and all of us here know this. So, understanding everyone has slightly different viewpoints, I applaud him for continuing to express it. He’s been through a whole lot in his life, too, growing up and living among the wildest of the evangelicals, and landed feet first on the good side. Some of that was thanks to his son’s service in the military, and – as Frank puts it – his son’s serving in “two dumb wars.” He’s not just paying lip service, and – sad but true – that’s the real difference he brings to the table, and what separates him from many “so-called progressive” whites in America who do.

Forus, the mention of lynching IMO wouldn’t make things any worse. They already wake up with it on their putrid minds daily. Frank is just spelling it all out. Ugliness is hard to face, but necessary to save one’s life, and in this case, we need to continue to fight against the cancer of racism or we are all doomed.

Frank speaks the truth, uncomfortable as it is. Lynching is what these people are doing, and it must be faced.
I live in Oklahoma, and two weeks ago, a small bit came on the local news about two travelers on a road in Oklahoma who saw a disgusting sight…..a dummy with a black face hanging by a rope from a tree. It was on private property, nothing could be done.
SO…….it’s ugly, but it’s accurate…..bless Frank for saying it out loud. Someone had to.
We have got to lance this boil on the body politic. His comments about the left pundits were especially hard hitting and true.

…. over 200,000 people – this evening Kyiv time – singing their National Anthem. The imagery in the video is so beautiful it just seemed right to share it in a thread dedicated to honoring the #SandyHook victims and families.